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Dear Chief Branding Officer (CBO) Networks members, https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4954835
Thank you very much for letting me join your group. I liked the description of the group’s purpose and the recent discussion. My first task was to identify the CBO members of the group. Many were involved in branding activities, providing insight strategies, SEO, and more.
However, I only found one member with the title CBO. Perhaps I have overlooked others. Please come forward and join the discussion: Does holding the CBO position lead to becoming a CEO? What can be done to follow this path, and how can a company benefit from choosing their CBO for promotion to CEO?
The most prominent example of an individual following this career path is Steve Easterbrook. He is currently President and CEO of the world’s largest restaurant company – McDonald’s. From June of 2013 until March 2015, he held the position of CBO with McDonald’s. His work for the company is praised on their website, where they note that he “sparked the brand’s recent turnaround by refocusing on the fundamentals of running great restaurants and taking smart risks to address what matters most to customers – quickly. Together with franchisees, suppliers and employees, McDonald’s has built on that foundation to drive operating growth, power a brand with both local and global relevance and enhance financial value across 36,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries.”
This is a great example of the success a CBO can have when promoted to the position of CEO. More impressive details can be found on Easterbrook’s LinkedIn profile . In 1993, he joined the company as a Financial Reporting Manager in London. He then served as CEO of McDonald’s UK, President of McDonald’s Europe- and then Global Chief Brand Officer. In addition to his more than 20 years with McDonald’s, Easterbrook briefly led two UK-based restaurant chains, PizzaExpress LTD and Wagamama Limited, giving him a broader industry perspective and deeper understanding of consumer preferences. Easterbrook is a certified accountant, and served as a visiting fellow of the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation. He has a degree in natural sciences from Durham University, where he also played cricket.
Does Easterbrook’s path represent an exception, or a trend? Will we see more CBOs having similar success in the future? The promotion of CMOs to CBOs is now possible, as many companies now identify their brand as an asset . This has been acknowledged not only within consumer goods companies but also in B2B firms . In companies like GE or SAP, the first CMOs have been established. Most of these leaders were coming through communication functions, like Beth Comstock (who is now Vice Chair of business innovations at GE) and her successor, Linda Boff, or Maggie Chan Jones from SAP.
I encountered another individual who has followed a similar path at the last AMA conference in Atlanta. Dick Lynch, board member at Granite City Food & Brewery, discussed his progression from CMO, to CBO, to becoming a member of the board. He developed the branding iceberg model for Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen, and puts the brand in his inner management focus . The new CMO now reports to him.
The CBO, I have identified in the Chief Branding Officer (CBO) Networks group is Sudeer Shetty, the Co-Founder & CBO at eReleGo Digi Media Pvt. Ltd. I am interested in hearing Sudeer’s story, and many more.
Who else is a CBO and how did you get there?

Feb. 4 2016 invester news were verd strong for Daimler AG in fiscal year 2015. Never before, Daimler had sold so many vehicles – 2.9 million in cluding 321.000 vans and 495.000 truck; the Daimler Holding generated 149.4 billion euros revenues, and made – 8.9 billion euros net profit. Now CEO Dieter Zetsche also wants to change the company culture. „Hierarchical structure, meeting culture, performance evaluation – all put to the test,“ he says. „The only requirement: There are no rules.“ He may be thinking of structures and processes like Google.

There has been so much discussion around the restructuring of Google, even the German ZEIT magazine feared an attack on the countries competitiveness[1]. Google innovativeness is a challenge for many companies, but adapting to the changing market conditions is a constant task for business leaders, some in a drastic way others do it step by step and adapt to the current requirements. Martin Reeves[2] introduces the term strategic ambidexterity: a company’s ability of exploring new practices, products and business models while exploiting existing ones at the same time – a capability which is both remarkably valuable and equally hard in practice. Managing in an ambidextrous environment is the challenge of today.

Many years ago, the Daimler AG took up the challenge and started is learning about multi-brand every day. In the passenger car market, they offer Mercedes-Benz an then the „Smart“ car. In 1997, this mini car model was added as “the city mobile of the future”. In 2003, the Maybach Manufaktur was founded to offer hand-builds cars for the super luxury customers. Early 2014, the Maybach brand was discontinued. Since June 2014, Mercedes-Maybach S-class model as a product brand of Mercedes-Benz is available. In 2015, Mercedes-AMG introduced the AMG GT as separate branded model.

For industrial customers Daimler AG offers a portfolio of truck brand with regional priorities. Mercedes-Benz is headquartered in Germany; Freightliner operates from the USA, Fuso from Japan, Western Star Trucks from Canada. In Russia, Daimler has a truck Joint Venture with Kamaz, and in China with Foton. In June 2012, the first BharatBenz truck hit the Indian roads, and will serve the product requirements in the developing countries. They followed Martin Reeves first strategic principles: “Allow each unit to deploy the right approach to strategy and execution.”[3] Over the years, management had to learn that this principle has its limitations. In the global competitive environment efficiencies and synergies between the brands had to be materialized. Multi-brand portfolio management became the requirement. Shareholder were pushing for higher margins and competitors like Volvo set bench marks way ahead of Daimler’s former single brand performance.

Also, the commercial customers (B2B) require clarity about the value proposition of the various Daimler brands around the globe. Just imagine, you manage an iron ore mine in Australia, and want to purchase new fleet of trucks. Which trucks fulfill your transportation requirements in the harsh mining environment? Do you want to buy from one company and how do you want your trucks be serviced? These and more questions have to be answer correctly by the brand owners to be part of the deal.

Other industries have similar challenges and market leaders react with new strategic approaches which include new organizational set-up and the distinct brand strategy. Daimler AG has taken up this challenge in B2C and B2B market, but many more has to learn. Could they learn from the Marriott Group[4] brand management, Caterpillar[5] or Atlas Copco[6]?

After a strong rise of revenue and earnings in the Google parent company Alphabet is passed by after trading on Monday on the iPhone maker Apple and went up to the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world. The alphabet shares shot up by more than eight percent in the amount, the market value rose to about 570 billion dollars. The market capitalization of the recent exchanges Champions Apple has been overtaken. With the recent announcement alphabet stock value raced above Apple’s. This came as a surprise, but it was not unexpected for the academic world.

Alphabet investors’ were positively surprised with its quarterly figures. From October to December 2015, the surplus increased year on year from 4.68 to 4.92 billion dollars as the company announced after US market close on Monday. Revenue rose 18 percent to $ 21.33 billion.

„Our very strong revenue growth in Q4 reflects the vibrancy of our business, driven by mobile search as well as YouTube and programmatic advertising, all areas in which we’ve been investing for many years. We’re excited about the opportunities we have across Google and Other Bets to use technology to improve the lives of billions of people,“ said Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet.

The figures were awaited with particular anticipation, since it was the first Annual Report in the new group structure. The Group had announced the conversion to Alphabet Holding last August and completed in October. The recent Google shareholders became shareholders of the new holding company.
The advertising revenues of the operating units rose year on year by 17 percent to $ 19.08 billion, particularly strong the video platform YouTube and the mobile operating system Android. These platforms are important reasons for the strong growth in business with advertising on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
In many industries, when maturity has reached a certain point, the successful companies are trying to cover various segments of the market with specific brands. Such developments we have seen in the auto industry, in the food industry, at airplanes and now it is happening the Internet business.

Google’s management made a very consequent decision to create a holding company and is managing its subsidiaries and their brands separately. Procter & Gamble developed the concept of conscious brand management for the consumer industry in the 1930s. Daimler applies multi-brand concepts for their trucks business with Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, Wester Star, Fuso and BharatBenz and Mercedes-Benz, AMG and Smart for the passenger cars. The industrial giant Caterpillar has more than 30 brands.

Apple is also managing more brands, one of them is the headphone company Beats Electronics, but they are not as focused on the multi-brand appearance then Google. Is this a mistake? Future will tell. Current research indicates that with multi-brand management, if it is done properly many more corporate goals could be achieved.